Whiskers
by imnotokaywiththerunning
Summary: He never meant for any of it to happen. He had been minding his own business reading the paper out in the garden when she had plonked herself down on his lap as if she belonged there. My take on "whiskers" from the tumblr chelsie-prompts.
**A/N This is my take on the chelsie-prompts Whiskers from tumblr. Hope you enjoy it. :)**

* * *

He never meant for any of it to happen. He had been minding his own business reading the paper out in the garden when she had plonked herself down on his lap as if she belonged there.

"Excuse me, madam, but just what do you think you are doing?"

His only reply was a soft purring as the small creature curled herself further into his lap. Charles stared down imperiously at the sleeping creature to no effect. He harrumphed and shook out his paper to make some noise. He looked down again. Nothing. Not even an ear twitch.

Charles sighed. Suppose he let the cat sleep while he read the paper? She wasn't really bothering him. When he was finished with the paper, he could move the cat and go on about his day. Yes, he nodded. That's what he'd do.

Sometime later Charles felt himself jolt awake at a tickle under his nose. He opened his eyes to find the cat with her paws on his chest and her nose inches from his own. She let out a soft meow before she jumped from his lap and sauntered away. Charles blinked sleepily after her.

His stomach rumbled and he looked down at his watch. He had slept through luncheon and Elsie was due home from the Abbey to change from her day dress any minute!

He jumped up and gathered his papers together haphazardly. He had wanted to have tea ready for Elsie when she came home. He hurried back into the house forgetting all about his feline visitor.

 _-whiskers-_

Charles had only just settled himself in his chair in the garden when a cat jumped out of nowhere into his lap. He groaned.

"Not you again. Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

The cat merely turned a circle and curled herself into a ball as she had done the day before. Charles sighed in defeat and scratched behind her ears. He gingerly leaned forward for his newspaper so as not to disturb her. Reading the newspaper with some company, even that of a cat, was a welcome distraction from the monotony of his days in retirement. He would enjoy the warm weight of the small animal while she had graced him with her presence.

His papers read Charles looked down at the sleeping cat and ran his hand across the soft fur of her back. "Well, Little Miss, I don't know about you, but I could do with a spot of tea. Perhaps I might be able to find you a saucer of milk."

At the mention of a saucer a milk the cat raised her head expectantly. Charles chuckled and set her down on the ground to get up from his chair. He walked into the cottage with the cat following dutifully behind.

 _-whiskers-_

The next few weeks followed the same. The cat, Little Miss as Charles had begun to call her, arrived mid morning when he would sit down to read his newspapers and then stay later and later each day. She would always leave before Elsie came home, though, and Charles never brought the cat up in their conversations. Elsie already thought him soft enough as it was. Charles didn't think telling her about his spending his days in the company of a small animal would help his reputation with her. So he kept Little Miss his secret.

As the weeks went by Charles noted the Little Miss was getting bigger and lazed about much more than she usually did. He put it down to the heat and all the extra food he had been giving her. She began to sleep in the corner of the sitting room while he worked in the cottage instead of following him around. Thinking she must be uncomfortable on the hard floor, he found a basket and placed an old blanket in it for her to sleep on. She became so fond of her new bed that Charles had to start setting her outside in the garden before Elsie came home.

One morning just after Elsie had left for the Abbey Charles heard a scratch on the back door followed by the distinctive meow of Little Miss. His faced folded in confusion as he walked to open the door. She was very early this morning. She shot through the door almost as soon as he opened it. He followed her back into the sitting to see she had run straight to her bed in the corner. He knelt down to gently run his hand over her head.

"What are you doing here so early, Little Miss?" He asked feeling her shiver under his hand. "Did something scare you? Well, you're safe here."

He looked at the cat in concern for a moment longer until she seemed to go to sleep. He shrugged and fetched his papers to go read them out in the garden. Little Miss didn't follow him so he left the door open for her if she changed her mind. Charles found it difficult to focus on his papers without the weight of a cat sitting in his lap. He kept glancing back towards the door hoping she would come out to join him. When he finally realized he was moping over a cat he grumbled and decided to go about his morning like he always did. He didn't need a cat following him everywhere anyway.

Charles had forced himself to spend his usual few hours out of doors just to prove to himself that he could get on with his day without Little Miss. He finally got up to go inside. Perhaps he'd check on the cat when he walked through the sitting room to the kitchen for tea.

He shut the door behind him and walked swiftly to Little Miss's corner. She was still lying in her bed, but she wasn't alone.

"Oh dear."

 _-whiskers-_

Elsie was late and she wasn't happy. Charles had said he would meet her at the Abbey to walk her home tonight. She had waited for half an hour before giving up and walking home alone. She had started her walk miffed that her husband had forgotten about her, but as she walked her thoughts turned to worry. What if something had happened to him? It wasn't like Charlie at all to forget to walk her home.

"Charlie?" she called worriedly when she burst through the door. "Charlie, where are you?"

Soon he came huffing out of the sitting room with a towel in his hands and a worried look on his face.

"Oh, Elsie! Thank God you're here. I've done all I can think of but I think she may need some help. I'm not sure if she's finished or not."

He had barely given her time to take off her hat and set her things down before he was pulling her behind him through the cottage and into their sitting room. She had no idea what nonsense he was spouting. All she could think was that he'd gone mad staying in this cottage all day by himself. She stopped just inside the room and pulled her hand from Charles's.

"Charlie, stop. What on Earth are you going on about? Who needs help? And she?"

"Little Miss," Charles said in a tone that he obviously thought explained everything, but Elsie was even more confused.

"Little Miss?"

"Yes, the cat." He kept looking over his shoulder to the far corner. Elsie looked around him to find that he had moved one of the kitchen chairs and had piled it with towels. She looked at him incredulously.

"Charlie," she spoke slowly as if to a child, "we don't have a cat."

He huffed and grabbed her hand again to pull her further into the room and pointed to a basket with a tabby cat and six small kittens. "We do now. Seven of them."

Elsie's face lit up in wonder as she looked between her husband and the basket. She broke into a wide smile and knelt next to the basket full of newborn kittens. She felt Charles kneel next to her and watched him reach a hand out to the tabby who rubbed her head against him in affection. The cat obviously was fond of Charles. Elsie never would have guessed that her husband would become a midwife to a stray cat. She chuckled at the thought. Charles looked askance at her.

"What?"

"How long have you had this cat, Charlie?" she asked still smiling at him wondering how on Earth he had kept such a secret.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "Well, she just started to come around about a month ago and well… She came early this morning and then just before lunch she started having kittens. I didn't know what to do."

Elsie laughed outright at that. "Didn't you know she was pregnant?"

Charles's face wrinkled in consternation. "Well, no. I've not been around a cat since I was a child. How was I to know?"

Elsie continued to laugh making Charles huff in mock annoyance. He reached back down into the basket. "The only question now is where are we going to keep seven cats?"

"We can't keep seven cats!"

"Why not?" he asked wide-eyed.

"Charles!" She laughed again and placed her hand on his arm. "We don't need seven cats. We'll find the kittens homes somewhere else."

Charles watched the kittens nursing for a moment. "Fine. But they have to be _good_ homes. They can't go to some house with small children to pull their tails."

"Agreed." Elsie smiled lovingly at her husband and reached up to kiss him. She then looked down at the tabby and her kittens. "Well, Little Miss, welcome to the Carson family."


End file.
